Stay tuned to this post throughout the night for the latest backstage updates from Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

You can also stay up to date with our traditional UFC 165 live results post, which includes play-by-play, live scoring, judging, fight recaps, photos and more.

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5:58 p.m. ET: Outside the Air Canada Centre conditions are, shall we say, less than ideal. It’s been raining all day, and downtown construction and road closures have traffic in one big, ugly snarl. Fortunately, Toronto’s fight night enthusiasm seems unaffected. On my way in, I even saw a group of guys in blue and yellow wigs. I asked if they were Alexander Gustafsson fans and they shouted and moved on. So I’m going to say yeah, those are Alex’s people.

6:35 p.m. ET: Still a lot of empty seats in the arena, both on the floor and in the lower bowl, but you wouldn’t know it from the sound of the crowd after that knockout by Daniel Omielanczuk. The people who are here are feeling it now. And those who got up to get a beer in the third round of a plodding heavyweight bout? Don’t worry, there are flatscreens positioned above most of the concessions stands.

6:55 p.m. ET: Omielanczuk just stopped by for a chat with reporters in the media center (or centre, this being Canada and all). His fight’s been over for at least 15 minutes, but he’s still breathing hard after almost three full rounds of heavyweight combat. When asked why he used so many kicks against Nandor Guelmino, he replied, via a translator, that it was because he watched “Kung Fu Panda” last night. Hard to tell whether he was joking.

7:27 p.m. ET: Alex Caceres stopped by after his split decision win over Roland Delorme. According to Caceres, he and Delorme actually cut weight together before their fight, and seemed to get along quite well. “We were just sitting together cutting weight, chatting about all the food we’re going to eat afterward, the parties,” Caceres said. “Regular guy stuff.”

7:30 p.m. ET: Caceres also said that his positive test for marijuana after his decision win over Kyung Ho Kang was ultimately a life-changing event, and for the better. Caceres insisted that he no longer smokes weed, and feels much better, much more fit, and much sharper as a result. “I stopped, and hell yeah, it was much better for me. I was back in the gym immediately. For six months I was training for this fight, even before I knew I was fighting Delorme. … I had more energy. I didn’t have any excuses.” When his career is over? Then, Caceres said, he might puff up again. But for the remainder of his MMA career, he insisted, he’ll abstain.

7:40 p.m. ET: Former UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson showed up backstage with Caceres, by the way. While Caceres rapped with the media, Henderson had a seat and dug into the buffet spread. Not bad food this time around, though it’s the desserts that will really change your life.

8:19 p.m. ET: UFC middleweight champ Chris Weidman is here, clad in a T-shirt, jeans and Converse All-Stars. Seems like being champ hasn’t changed his personal style too much just yet. Apparently the New York media market has him setting UFC records for interviews in a single day, though he still gave us a few minutes of his time. When I asked if he expected Anderson Silva to clown around as much in the rematch as he did in the first fight, Weidman replied, “I think the only reason he wouldn’t put his hands down and do what he usually does is because he knows that if he does get knocked out again, the way he did last time, people will be like, ‘Are you kidding me?'”

8:22 p.m. ET: Weidman also weighed in on tonight’s main event, saying, “I feel like a lot of people are writing off Gustafsson. But if he goes in there with confidence, if he truly is confident, then we’ve got a really good fight on our hands. I think his standup is better. He’s more experienced, standup wise. He has great cardio. He’s a big dude. Jon Jones is very deceptive, though.”

8:25 p.m. ET: In case you were wondering, no, John Makdessi did not enjoy the late stoppage in his KO victory over Renee Forte. According to Makdessi, he was initially surprised that Forte went down when he did because the punch that dropped him didn’t feel all that devastating. After the follow-up shots clearly put him out though, even Makdessi was wondering what the ref was looking at. “I was a little bit shocked, hesitant,” Makdessi said. “I was a little bit disappointed that I had to hit him with unnecessary shots. But this is the name of the game. I had to continue hitting him until the referee stepped in.”

8:28 p.m. ET: Here’s a new one, at least for me. The meal in the media centre includes a noodle bar. So as I sit here typing between interviews, there’s a guy a few feet away making pad thai and whatnot on request. When I expressed surprise at this, Sherdog’s Jordan Breen shot back, “Dude, you’re in Toronto.”

8:45 p.m. ET: In order to rep his sponsors in post-fight interviews after his win, Mitch Gagnon literally asked for the shirt off his coach’s back. According to Gagnon, “Somebody asked me for my shirt when I was walking [backstage after the fight], and I just gave it to them.” Short-sighted? Maybe. But fortunately his coach is the generous and gregarious Antonio Carvalho, who didn’t mind standing around shirtless in the media center while Gagnon did his interviews. “What choice did I have?” Carvalho said.

9:05 p.m. ET: A lot of Canadians were excited about Jesse Ronson‘s UFC debut, but it didn’t go his way against Michel Prazeres, who outwrestled him en route to a split decision win. According to Ronson, the dreaded octagon jitters played a role. “I felt loose, I felt relaxed, but as soon as [Burt Watson] was like, ‘We rollin’!’ and I stepped out there and took a deep breath and was like, wow, this is really my first UFC fight,” he said. At least for the first round, Ronson said, “The UFC jitters did hit me. I kind of had a bit of a brain fart, and he took me down right away.” By the time Ronson got his head straight and battled back into the fight, it was too late. Call it a learning experience.

9:30 p.m. ET: Stephen Thompson was brimming with his usual child-like enthusiasm after an impressive knockout of Chris Clements. Let’s just say the word “dadgummit” got tossed around an awful lot. Asked if he’d be joining the camp of UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre as he prepares to defend his title against Johny Hendricks, Thompson replied, “We haven’t talked. Actually, I’m going to talk to Firas [Zahabi] after this to see if they need any guys. … If he has me in, I’ll do my best to simulate Hendricks with my striking. I definitely can’t simulate his wrestling.” That’s a man who knows his limitations.

9:42 p.m. ET: Wilson Reis said he had to make some serious dietary changes in order to make weight in time for his bout with Ivan Menjivar. About two and a half weeks out, when he first got the bout offer, Reis said, he weighed 168 pounds – a full 32 pounds from the bantamweight limit. “When I got the call, I went to salad and chicken,” Reis said. The first week of that, he admitted, was pretty tough. But what else do you expect when you have to lose about five percent of your body weight in less than three weeks? At least he got the decision win, and felt good doing it, he said. “I didn’t gas today.”

10:18 p.m. ET: One constant in life: The coffee in the media room at a UFC event will be hot enough to burn your face off. Proceed with caution.

10:22 p.m. ET: Myles Jury said he was surprised that his decision win over Mike Ricci was a split, but at least he has goals for his future. “I really don’t call people out, but right now I’ve always wanted to fight [Takanori] Gomi,” Jury said. “I’ve been saying that since I got in the UFC. I;ve been a fan of his since I was a kid. Nothing disrespectful or anything like that, but he’s a legend.”

11:11 p.m. ET: I’ll give you one guess what Khabib Nurmagomedov was wearing on his head when he showed up backstage. Yeah, it was that awesome fuzzy hat, sitting atop a stony face. Nurmagomedov declined to talk much about potential future opponents except to say that he’d fight whoever gets him closer to a title shot. He did, however, open up on his Matt Hughes-esque carry and slam of Pat Healy. “I was watching a lot of UFC as I was growing up,” Nurmagomedov said. “I was watching Matt Hughes, of course, and I remember that move, and it was kind of my dream to do that one day in the cage. Obviously, I just wanted to make my dream come true.” Consider it done.

11:28 p.m. ET: Maybe fans in Air Canada Centre weren’t crazy about Francis Carmont‘s wrestling-heavy performance against Constantinos Philippou, but he didn’t see what the big deal was. “When you fight a top guy, a top 10, it’s not easy to finish a fight,” Carmont told us backstage. “I tried to finish Costa Philippou two or three times with strangulation, but he’s a tough guy.” Carmont took the unanimous decision victory, but he probably didn’t win a ton of new fans in the process. Next, he said, he wants a top five or top three opponent en route to a title shot, but can he really get there like this? “All my fights I finish, maybe 16,” Carmont said. “I make six decisions in my life. … This is the UFC. I fight the toughest guys in the world.” That may be true, but of those six decisions, three came in his last three fights.

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.